beds, bathrooms, big spaces... feels so good to be home

Two weeks is a long time to be away.  Glad to be back.  

Only blogged until day 3 of my 14 day trip.  

Beijing: markets, jiaozi, snack street

In the morning, Jill and I went to the Pearl and Silk Markets. The Pearl market was so much different that when I was here before. Before people were sitting on little stools with their stuff laid out on boxes and whatever they put together. This time it was over a hundred organized stalls with actual stands and displays. It was hard to choose which person to buy pearls from because they all basically had the same stuff. It was kind of fun haggling with the girl to get the price down. I also got snowboarding outfits for the kids a couple of scarves (but not as good as the one I lost), and a couple of souvenir Chinese outfits for the kids.

When Jill walked through the stalls it was seriously like a bad dream where people are coming at you and saying the same thing over and over, "Hello lady, you buy a scarf, hello lady, you buy underwear for you, you buy underwear for you husband, hello lady, best price, hello!" It was pretty funny for me but I wasn't the one getting attacked.

For lunch the university people took us to a jiaozi (dumpling) place. We had at least 10 different kinds. I love the chrysanthemum tea that some places serve here. We bought some to take home (but I am sure it won't be as good as when someone makes it for me). They serve cute sugar crystals with the tea.

New things at this meal:

Fennel dumplings

Chinese sour vegetabel dumplings

Woodears (mushrooms)

Potatos julienned and stir fried, still crispy, so tasty

At night we went to a shopping center and came across Beard Papa's cream puffs. I love those things. I have had them in Japan (where they started) and New York and now in China. I was just about excited as I dared to be in front of my in laws. Karl wasn't with us, he was meeting some law firm or something like that.

Karl met up with us and we went and walked down Snack Street. It was a lot of fun and a lot of gross food. I didn't eat any starfish, sea horses, scorpians, or bugs. I do have boundaries.

New stuff:

Tako Yaki- Grilled dough balls with a hunk of octopus in them. (These are Japanese so I have had them in Japan but I have never had them in China. They are better in Japan).

The veggies wrapped in a big crepe like thing (was ok).

The noodles, cucumbers, and beans with sauce (I have had those things before, but never this gross).

Roasted corn that had been roasting/drying for who knows how long. I was bummed because it looked so good.

Stinky tofu (I am pretty sure I never ever ever need to get within 3 feet of that stuff again).

Coconut juice straight from the coconut (once again, I really wanted it to taste better)

Hawthorn (like a tiny apple) stacked on a stick and candied. (I loved it)

So, out of all the stuff I had, I only loved one thing.

This sign has kept us entertained this whole trip (and probably will for a long time after...).

Another fashion trend that we have seen over and over:

Girls wear shorts (usually bubble style), tights, and then knee high boots.

The most elaborate of this that we have seen is shorts, tights, thigh high socks, then knee high boots.

ligers, dumplings, cake... happy birthday karl

This is my 200th post!

Warning:
This post is not for PETA people, animal lovers, and I'm guessing most normal people. Guys, hunters, gather round...
I am behind on my posts because of the lame internet connection. I am skipping ahead to Karl's birthday.

So, we went to this city called Harbin. It is a four hour drive from where we are staying right now. The reason? To see these tigers. Specifically, to pay money to watch the tigers devour live animals. Ew, I know.

We pile in a bus and drive around these Siberian Tigers like it is no big deal. The first lucky victims were these chickens. A guy drives up in a Land Cruiser and just chucks them out the door. The tigers are all over the car and the guy seems unphased.

Ok, so here is where is gets gross. I felt compelled to share all the grossness. Maybe to diffuse it a little. A little goat. A cute little goat. They let it loose. It runs a bit and then all these cats attack it (which apparently is unnatural because in the wild these animals hunt alone but when we are dumping goats out of cars for money, do we really give thought to what is natural anymore?)

Next, is Karl's birthday present from his dad and Jill. A cow. A cute little yearling (I am learning lots of new words from my country boy) gets dumped out of the truck. Look at the tigers go. The saddest part was the mooing/crying.

So, those that have been to China (it is crazy how many of my friends have been to China) can agree that this next part is "so Chinese." Once the tigers get the cow dead, two SUVs pull up. One guy GETS OUT (note: tigers are all around) while the other guy shoos the tigers away. I show him lighting the fire cracker that he throws to get one of the tigers to back off. They tie the cow up, and, get this one, DRAG it around so the cats will chase it. So sad. Even sadder that it was entertaining us. In the end, they chop up the cow and drop big hunks so all the tigers get a piece.

Here were some other cats:

The white tiger. Yep, perfect for printing onto black velvet. A liger. Yep, bred for its skills in magic. And that black thing.

And here are some awesome signs: The service promise that among other mistakes does not list the phone number for English speakers to call. The price list for the live animals. Gross, I know. And check out this candy bar I found. Guts. We tried it, it tasted chocolaty, nutty, creamy, and crunchy. Nothing like guts at all.

But, Karl's birthday celebration was not all disgusting. These nice ladies made us this tasty lunch. Handmade fresh noodles are one of my favorite things, ever. Of course, the fresh dumplings also make me happy. This meal for three? $2.22 US.

This nice guy decorated this cake for us. It took all the guts (and not meaning the above candy bar) I had to go and order this cake. The only thing that we could communicate were the numbers and "happy birthday." This guy made that animal out of frosting in like 1 minute. The detail was amazing.

Since all of us were sick and achy and tired, we stayed in and ate cake. The flowers on the table are from a couple of people from the university. They knew it was his birthday (because they were lucky enough to see Karl's birthday cow get eaten). Karl got all the candles out in one shot. He was a good sport and wore the crown that the bakery provided with the cake.

peking duck, this is how we do it

Karl's dad is the "Director of Academic Initiatives for Asia" for USU so he comes to China a couple of times a year to teach. He invited Karl to come teach because of his economic skills, his teaching skills, and his Chinese skills. I invited myself to come along.

My dad said, "I could go to China just to eat."

There you have it. It is genetic. I have inherited my love of food. And there is no shame in the fact that, "I am just here for the food."

Because he is a professor, they give Karl's dad the royal treatment here (when will America learn how to treat teachers?). And I love being a part of this (when will my family learn how to treat Mommies? Just kidding. Kind of. Maybe). One of the benefits is that they take us out to eat and as soon as we walk in the place we are led to fancy private rooms and someone orders us a beautiful, well balanced meal of about a dozen different dishes, put it on the giant lazy susan in the middle of the table (a great way to eat, I love it), and the feasting begins.

. For a food nerd like me, well, it is just perfect.

The nice people took us to Peking Duck. It was so neat to see the guy cutting it up. They taught us to take the pieces of crispy skin and dip them in a little bit of coarse sugar. The sugary, salty, crispy, oily combo we so good. Totally worth the fat and calories. Then they showed us how to take pieces of meat, dip the in the sauce, add a little onion, cucumber, and roll it up in a thin crepe like wrapper.

If you know me, you know I was crazy about the precise presentation in the square dishes.

Some firsts for me at this meal: the skin of duck feet (once is probably enough), the sweet bean squares (we have something similar in Japanese food), and something they just called sea vegetable (in a vinegary sauce that I was absolutely crazy about. I definitely ate more than my share of this dish).

We stopped at the grocery store. Rafaelo's, man these guys are smart. Beautiful cakes. The bottom right one made me giggle. And point. Just like a kid. And some Chinglish. Because, in my neck of the woods, we celebrate being nerdy.

great wall, ok food

On the way up to the Great Wall we called the kids:

Eva: We have to wear green tomorrow or else we will get pinched by a leprechaun.

Samuel: I want to stay here forever (meaning my parents' house)

We cheated (in China that means you are clever) and took the tram up to the top.

That wall is huge. We went to a section that has been renovated for tourists. The last time I was here we went to a section that was crumbling and I felt all brave for taking it on.

I love this photo of the gaurds.

We were starving and thirsty by the time we got down so we just chose one of the first places to eat that we saw. We chose this place because a lady at the other place kept yelling at us to go eat at her place and it was annoying and we didn't want to encourage that kind of behavior. The food was definately catered towards the western palate. Read: ok but not great.

and a little Chinglish, an endless source of nerdy entertainment...

China: the old neighborhood aint what it used to be

I confuse this country incident #1:

The girl that picked us up at the airport looked at me very confused and said, "You look...Asia?"

Asia.  Yes, I do.

#2:

At the restaurant the waitress spoke to me and when Karl explained that I don't speak Chinese she said to me, "Oh!  You don't speak Chinese?"  In Chinese.

Our first dinner was lovely.  Ri chang restaurant.  My favorite was the fried beef tenderloin with black pepper sauce.  How do they get the beef so tender?  Or do I not want to know?  Two new foods I tried are loofah (yep, that stuff you use in the tub), and bitter melon (my mom makes a tea out of the dried stuff but I have never had it fresh).  The loofah, though prepared in a delicious garlic sauce and topped with noodles and crunchies, had kind of a, um, earthy taste it.  The bitter melon was, as the name says, bitter.  Yes, I took a picture of the water bottle because it was so cute.

Feast for four:  About 21 dollars.  Top that McD's!

After dinner we took a short walk across the street to a small lake that is lined with bars all the way around it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the yogurt craze has made it over here, too.  We meant to get chocolate chips and some neat white fruit with black seeds.  Ended up with cantaloupe.  Not bad.

So, Eva writes on the door.  She is not supposed to (yes, we do have a few rules).  She writes, "Samuel."  Who at the time was two.  She says, "How did you know it was me?".  

So, did this Chinese person think that no one would know it was a Chinese person that did it?  It made me laugh to see, "Hello" (The one English word that vendors say over and over again to get your attention) and a cute little smiley face.  Big rebellious graffiti writer person was so friendly.  And happy.

The signs here are a source of entertainment themselves.  I am glad they specified which kind of prostitutes they did not allow.  

Things I would not have seen last time I was here:

Girl checking our passport had fake nails.  With glitter.

Eighties perms are in.  Awesome.

All these tall buildings.  The old buildings are gone.  

So so so many cars.  

Me up at 7 a.m..  Jet lag.

I never eat breakfast.  I hate it.  But I am thinking about taking it up here just so I can eat more meals here.